the thing i most admire about him is the way he treated everyone. everyone with dignity. >> vice president joe biden speaking tonight at a memorial for former republican senator warren rudman of new hampshire. who died last week at the age of 82. in politics -- even in politics, sometimes party is the thing that matters least of all. "first look" is up next. right now on "first look," at least one of the million-dollar powerball winners are coming forward, and there's talk of a secret code to the winning numbers. details ahead. meanwhile, washington was abuzz over avoiding the looming fiscal cliff. the president's lunch with mitt romney, the united nations note on palestine. all this as joe biden was christmas shopping. and some amazing random acts of kindness. good morning, everyone. i'm lynn berry. and today the first of the two grand prize powerball winners will come forward to reveal

themselves and have their lives change forever. and there's also buzz about a potential code within the winning numbers. nbc's kerry sanders has that story. >> reporter: in tiny dearborn, missouri, where just about everyone knows everyone, the question is was it one of their own who bought a winning powerball ticket? >> it's exciting, very exciting. we never, ever thought that we would sell the winning ticket, and here it is. we did. >> reporter: folks in this farming community just off interstate 70 are now trying to figure out if the winning numbers were chosen with meaning. dearborn is but 35 miles north of kansas city, home of the royals baseball team. those winning lottery numbers? they match royals' hall of famers, brett, gubiza, jackson, leonard, quizenbury. the one outlier, bo jackson. while not a hall of famer, he was the first athlete to be named all-star in two american sports, baseball and football. number 23, gubicza, now a major

league announcer, has heard the theory all day. >> i hope it's because they liked 6 the most in kansas city history. >> reporter: while it's an odd coincidence spring training is in arizona where the other winning lottery ticket was sold at this chevron station in fountain hills, a suburb 26 miles outside phoenix. again, the question here, who bought the winning ticket? >> yeah, yeah. this is excellent. i'm so surprised. it's wonderful. i'd like to know who it is because, you know, founden hills is a pretty small town. and you know most everybody. >> everyone's waiting to hear who it is. that's nbc's kerry sanders reporting. elsewhere, despite american objections, the united nations general assembly voted to recognize palestine as a nonmember state. palestinians celebrated, but the u.s. says it's an obstacle to peace talks. nbc's danielle leigh joins us from washington with the details. danielle, good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning, lynn.

a bit of a loss for israel. the vote feared to make palestine less likely to negotiate a peace deal directly with israel. the united nations overwhelmingly voted to upgrade palestine's status to a nonmember state, and that allows them to go after israel and international court which could delay or complicate any efforts at forming an agreement that forms two independent states of palestine and israel. ambassador susan rice said she was disappointed by the vote. the u.s. had threatened funding in the west bank in the hopes of preventing it. and rice says that the only way to truly form an independent state of palestine is through direct talks with israel, something the u.s. is committed to. despite those words, palestinians took to the streets celebrating what they consider a victory and a step toward their own independence. the real test is going to be what happens next. do both sides come to the table and start talking about peace, something both israel and palestine say that they want. reporting live in washington, i'm danielle leigh. lynn, back to you. >> danielle, thanks.

secretary of state hillary clinton is weighing in on two major mideast situations, both with great u.s. interests involved. amid reports the obama administration is preparing to recognize syria's opposition council as the legitimate representative of the people, clinton notes rebels are now able to hold their ground and take the fight to government forces. >> we have been deeply involved in helping to stand them up, and we're going to carefully consider what more we can do. and on iran's nuclear ambitions, clinton says with the u.s. election over, now's the time to see if there's any hope for negotiating in good faith. >> there is still a window of opportunity to reach some kind of resolution. and back here to main street, usa, a couple of great stories for you. yesterday in sandy-stricken new jersey and new york, a secret santa was handing out $100 bills. the anonymous missouri man sought out people who had been

devastated by hurricane sandy. and while he plans to hand out $100,000 in total, he says it's not about the money. it's about committing random acts of kindness. speaking of random acts, this new york city police officer did something incredibly kind for a homeless veteran in need. and he did it when he thought no one else was looking. >> reporter: it was a moment of kindness captured in a photograph. an nypd officer helping an apparently homeless man. >> it was freezing. and the first thing i thought was, this is absolutely unacceptable. so i went up to him, and i was, like, where are your socks or your shoes or anything? >> reporter: the officer says he was so moved by what he saw, he went into this store to find the man a pair of shoes. >> it's kind of hard not to be inspired. again, it was a regular night. it was pretty busy, business as usual, but again, this officer kind of took the time, saw something, came in and took that extra step. >> reporter: jose was working in the skechers store at the time.

news 4 has obtained security video from the store. he helped him find a pair of waterproof boots and let the officer use his employee discount. the officer signed for his purchase, and the two shook hands. jennifer foster, a tourist from arizona, watched as the officer gave the man a brand-new pair of boots. >> this man's face lit up like it was christmas and like he had just been given literally a million dollars. >> reporter: news 4 has learned that the man in the picture was a veteran who was at one time homeless. sources say he often panhandles in times square and was placed in veterans housing sometime in the past year. it's not clear if he still has a place to live. whatever the man's situation, the officer is humbled that he'll have the image of that moment forever. >> when i look at the picture, i'm very happy that i'll be able to carry that with me the rest of my career. again, it's a very humbling experience for me. >> i bet he'll remember that. i think all of us will as well.

nbc's pei-sze chang reporting. now to nbc meteorologist bill karins with your weather channel forecast. >> good morning. >> a little reminder to pay it forward. >> a little, a lot. california, stormy, you know, this big winter storm, it's also kicked up the waves. and of course in california, that means throw on the wet suit and do some surfing. these very impressive waves, orange county, california, this is the huntington beach area. if you're an expert surfer, this was the day for you, right before the big storm arrives. the big waves get there first. we'll probably be watching that high surf for another couple days, of course, obviously it's a little dangerous for the average folk. today the rain if you're traveling out here through california, it's going to be widespread, inches of rain, the possibility of flooding. san francisco is just getting drenched this morning all the way up through sacramento. and further to the north, it continues all the way up the coastline. it's lighter up around eugene and portland here, just got a few showers, but it's going to be on and off really all day long and for that matter all weekend long. this is going to be a four or five-day event.

because of that the river levels will have some issues. seattle, now one area of rain kicked through, and another will be moving up from your south. i guess you get the gist of it. the rainfall amounts. when you start to see these brighter colors, that usually means trouble. this is in the mountains, this brown color, that's six inches. all areas, northern california and oregon, still another three to six inches on top of what you've already seen. and you can see all the clouds in white here. it's just a huge storm. and the green shows you where the rain is. and that tropical plume of moisture right up through central california. the rest of the country, by the way, still remaining dry. cold and chilly in the morning. your afternoon, though, on your friday looks nice. we should be up here 60 in kansas city. chicago near 50. and area on the east coast, new england is very cold this morning. but from about washington, d.c., through the southeast, looking for a really nice last day of november. can you believe that, lynn? last day of november. >> no, stop reminding me. >> your december weekend forecast a little later. >> the weekend forecast we'll take. so is the adult mommy book

"50 shades of grey" affecting what we're naming baby girls? plus, consumer reports on the nation's best wireless carriers. is yours one of them? your first look at this morning's business headlines is straight ahead. you're watching "first look" on msnbc. [ male announcer ] it's that time of year again. time for citi price rewind. because your daughter really wants that pink castle thing. and you really don't want to pay more than you have to. only citi price rewind automatically searches for the lowest price. and if it finds one, you get refunded the difference.

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welcome back. stories making news this morning, in egypt, president mohamed morsi is expected to approve a new constitution passed by the assembly as early as saturday. that may mean an end to the protests against morsi's decree giving himself new powers. former president george h.w. bush is expected to leave a houston hospital by the weekend. the 88-year-old was treated for bronchitis and a lingering cough. private bradley manning spoke at a hearing on charges he faces for leaking secrets to wikileaks. he told the military judge he was kept in solitary confinement and only allowed 20 minutes outdoors per day. demominique strauss-kahn ha

reached an agreement to settle a civil lawsuit against him by the new york hotel maid she claimed tried to rape her. and the new list of the most popular baby names for 2012 is just out. so top names for the boys, aiden, jackson, ethan, liam and mason. and top names for the girls, all end in the letter "a." sophia, emma, olivia, isabella and ava. and in a surprising twist, the popular book "50 shades of grey" seemed to have influenced the list with "anna" moving higher on the list. now here's your first look at this morning's dish of "scrambled politics." illinois governor pat quinn is waking up to bad news this morning. a new poll shows him to be the most unpopular governor they've surveyed in the entire country. just one out of four back him. an oregon election worker has been indicted by a grand jury for altering ballots. sources tell kgw the woman

picked republican candidates on parts of the ballot that voters had left blank. in a tearful interview, she says it was not intentional and suggests she may have a health problem. >> i apologize to my family and friends, to the community, to every voter, every voter out there. the mayor of olive hill, kentucky, has been busted for allegedly trying to sell marijuana to an undercover police officer. oh, and the mayor's name, by the way, danny sparks. he may wish that he hadn't said this about another drug crackdown two years ago. >> we need the courts to be very strict and be strong for us because all this work could go in vain. meanwhile, secretary of state hillary clinton told a forum she doesn't think legalizing drugs would end the violence. mayor scott brown may not be gone long. there's growing speculation he'll run if john kerry steps

down to take an obama cabinet position. another day, another republican jumping ship from grover norquist and his anti-tax pledge. this time it's new york congressman chris gibson who said that because of redistricting, he figures the pledge only applies to the area he was serving before. and this was the photo op of the day. of course, vice president joe biden, he was shopping at the new costco in washington, d.c. he munched on some cookie samples, bought children's books, a tv set and apple pie. remember this guy? the one who vowed to keep his romney/ryan campaign tattoo dispute the election results? reality has apparently caught up with him, and it's coming off soon. and that's your dish of "scrambled politics." another day of fiscal cliff drama. stocks reversed early gains and fell shortly after house speaker john boehner dashed hopes that lawmakers were getting closer to agreeing on a year-end budget deal.

but all three major markets did bounce back by the afternoon. economic data was positive thursday, but we'll see what impact there is today from grim news out of europe. eurozone unemployment has hit another record high at 11.7% in october. the number of retailers posted poor sales hammered by superstorm sandy's impact on the northeast. a bankruptcy judge has given hostess final clearance to start selling off assets and approved $1.8 million in bonuses for company executives. verizon wireless tops this year's "consumer reports" ranking of major carriers. it was at&t that came in last behind sprint and t-mobile, except among 4g users where it was the best. and where is the best country to be born in 2013? well, when factoring in life expectancy, divorce rates and rainfall, it's switzerland, according to the economist. i bet all the chocolate doesn't hurt. the u.s. is tied with germany at 16.

coming up, why is basketball legend michael jordan banned from a miami golf course? plus, when tigers attack. it's all caught on tape. that's next. you're watching "first look" on msnbc. [ male announcer ] where do you turn for legal matters? at legalzoom, we've created a better place to handle your legal needs. maybe you have questions about incorporating

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the lexus december to remember sales event is on. this is the pursuit of perfection. here's your first look at some of the other news going on america today. we begin with a deadly tiger attack at a virginia zoo. it was all caught on video. children and their parents witnessed a female white tiger killed by a bengal tiger after she took what appeared to be a playful swipe. the animal has been isolated

until officials determine how to integrate it back into the tiger exhibit. a giant sinkhole the size of four football fields is endangering homes and has shut down one state road. the massive mess in ohio is believed to be caused by a combination of sand dredging and land erosion. the road will be closed until engineers determine how to permanently repair the problem. and finally, two indiana friends had a good laugh at the expense of family and friends after posting a facebook photo of a $1 million winning powerball ticket. mom's not going to like this. after being congratulated several times, they revealed the photo was a hoax. all right. in sports, thursday night football, falcons/saints. atlanta quarterback matt ryan connected with tight end tony gonzalez and the falcons took the lead in the first half. the saints came back, but drew brees was intercepted five times, and his record streak of consecutive games with a touchdown pass ended at 54 as atlanta beat new orleans, 23-13. in college football,

louisville took the lead on a third quarter touchdown pass and wrapped up the 20-17 win over rutgers on a field goal in the closing minutes. that gives louisville the big east title and a bid to a bcs bowl game. in college basketball, manti te'o, notre dame's quarterback and heisman award candidate cheers on the unranked irish as they upset number eight kentucky. irish won, 64-50. the new york yankees reportedly have a new one-year deal for $10 million with closer mariano rivera who missed most of last season with a knee injury. get this. superstar michael jordan was playing golf in cargo shorts similar to these when he was asked to change. well, he refused. so the country club in miami asked him never to return. and he left. michael jordan, mind you. los angeles lakers' center dwight howard was challenged to a shooting contest by the lionhead mascot of the sacramento kings who made every single shot he took. and of course, embarrassed the

superstar. and he had the mask on. making it more difficult. finally, lebron james jr., the 8-year-old son of the heat star apparently got some of those basketball genes, and he prove it had by hitting a long trick shot from the balcony of their home to the hoop in the driveway. some recruits already looking at that avideo. now, bill karins who i think will have no doubt of the skepticism about the authenticity of that video. >> it's lebron. >> really? >> he wouldn't do that. it's his boy. i believe that one. well, good morning, everyone. let me take you to your weekend forecast, leaving the door in new england this morning, it's a cold, chilly morning. definitely the winter clothes. this afternoon, very similar to yesterday, but there will be a lot of clouds around. temperatures in new england really going to struggle today. some areas like albany remaining below freezing. all of northern new england. we will see nice weather around washington, d.c. if you're anywhere east of the rockies, you're not going to get a lot of wet weather.

and temperatures begin to warm nicely. chicago on saturday looks pretty good. and even by sunday, look at this. even areas towards new york city could see temperatures heading into the mid to upper 50s. warmer air generally and dry unless you're on the west coast. >> good start to december on the east coast. bill, thanks so much. just ahead, matthew perry jumps into the "two and a half men" controversy. plus, we'll have an update on halle berry's thanksgiving day brawl. entertainment news is straight ahe ahead. you're watching "first look" on msnbc. ke i'm stalking plants? [ male announcer ] most dry foods add plant protein, like gluten but iams never adds gluten. iams adds 50% more animal protein, [ cat 3 ] look at this body! under this shiny coat is a lean, mean purring machine [ cat 4 ] i am too! hahahaha! [ male announcer ] iams. with 50% more animal protein. [ cat 5 ] yum! [ cat 1 ] i'm an iams cat. feed me what i'm born to eat. meow.

with his wife, danielle, almost every weekend. derrell hasn't been able to visit his mom back east in a long time. [ shirley ] things are sometimes a little tight around the house. i wasn't able to go to the wedding. [ emily jo ] since derrell couldn't get home, we decided to bring home to him and then just gave him a little bit of help finding his way. ♪ [ laughs ] [ applause ] i love you. i love you, too. i'd like to thank eating right, whole grain, multigrain cheerios! mom, are those my jeans? [ female announcer ] people who choose more whole grain tend to weigh less than those who don't. multigrain cheerios

see, here's what happened. two summers ago, congress realized that if they couldn't compromise on a deficit and revenue plan, our economy would crash.

turns out they couldn't compromise. so here's what they did. in order to force themselves to work together and compromise, they concocted a catastrophic penalty that would itself crash our economy. put it another way. if there was an asteroid headed towards the earth, we made it and fired it at ourselves. because otherwise we would never have done the hard work required to protect ourselves from asteroids. >> see, that's one way of looking at it. yes. halle berry's thanksgiving day drama seems to be winding down. progress has been made regarding the holiday fistfight between hallry berry's ex-boyfriend, gabriel aubry, and her current fiance. in a statement, berry's lawyer said she and aubrey have reached an amicable agreement. berry had a restraining order put into effect after that fight

to keep aubrey from seeing their 4-year-old daughter. so lindsay lohan, she's done it again, arrested thursday for allegedly punching a woman in the face in a new york city fig nightclub. the woman was visiting from west palm beach and now has quite the story to tell. fans will be able to pay their respects to larry hagman during a memorial service at south fork ranch. and angus t. jones's brutally honest "two and a half m men" has inspired matthew. >> my show "go on" is a show with terrible morals. don't watch my show. i want you to stop watching nbc's "go on." now, this isn't the first time that i've trashed one of my shows after a spiritual awakening. in 2006, i begged people to stop watching "studio 60." and that video was very successful. no one watched that show. >> that's the funny moment right

there. >> we're not allowed to say anything about that. >> i watch "go on." i actually like the show. >> what? >> i never saw "studio 60." >> i haven't seen "go on," but i hear it's fantastic. >> it's about sports radio. >> i bet he left "friends" out there very intentionally. stay tuned. "way too early" starts right now. i'm disappointed in where we are and disappointed in what's happened over the last couple of weeks. but going over the fiscal cliff is serious business. and i'm here seriously trying to resolve it. and i would hope the white house would get serious as well. >> good morning. i'm mika brzezinski along here with joe scarborough, and this is "way too early." it's just "way too